Hi to all of you,
if there should be a single comment is
'try before you decide'.
I have not seen or heard Brett Wales so I cannot commend on his perfomance.I have seen the Abacus Video that Wersi UK has produced and it is terrible.(!)
But I play the Abacus professionaly since 1.11.01 and I can tell you it is great because of :
1.High quality (24bit)sounds using three different on board generators.Currently AKAI sounds can be loaded and with new version OAS4 a Gigasampler can be used as a fourth sound genertator.Maximum polyphony is more than 128 notes.
2.Eas of use :A multitude of (progammable) buttons,Real time volume sliders and color touch screen,not to forget a high quality keyboard (IMHO).
3.Memory capacity:Number of sounds ,styles,sequences,waves,MP3s,etc lmited only by hard disk size
100x10 total presets where you can save at a touch of button all the settings including mixing,style etc.
4.with Style convert you can have ANY style available.
5.Versatile:its a keyboard with a digital mixer,vocalist, and a normal Windows PC (also using XP with OAS4)including CDBurner (optional) in one box.NO CRASHES!!!
6.Infinite updateability.Current version 4.0 .Updates are done in some minutes by loading the s/w from CD.No chips to change.
IMHO it is great!If you can put your hands and ears on it pls do it.If the price or the marketing is not 'right'that is another story.